Saving heritage in Whitby

Town wants to protect original psychiatric hospital's last remaining building

Saving heritage in Whitby

Ryan Pfeiffer / Metroland

WHITBY -- Margaret Clayton, chairwoman of the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee Heritage Whitby, posed for a photo January 29 in front of a building referred to as the "Doctors' Residence", the last remaining hospital building from the original Whitby Psychiatric Hospital. Whitby council has instructed staff to work with the developer of a future subdivision near the lake and the Town's LACAC to explore ways to maintain the heritage building on the site. January 29, 2013.

Doctors' Residence

Submitted photo

The Doctors' Residence is the only remaining building from the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital complex. Photo taken in 1930.

WHITBY -- The fate of a heritage building in Whitby hangs in the balance while the Town works with a developer to find a suitable use for the structure.

Dating back to 1918, a house known as the Doctors' Residence sits near Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in south Whitby, and is the only remaining building from the original Whitby Psychiatric Hospital.

The building fronts onto the south side of Harbourside Drive, where Senator Homes Inc. is building a new subdivision. While it was the developer's initial plan to refurbish the building for adaptive re-use purposes -- a community centre and private school were some of the ideas tossed around -- that now seems unlikely.

"With the assistance of a heritage design architect and a number of other professionals to assess the building for its abilities to accommodate those future uses, it became more apparent (to) us that it was going to be an awful challenge to get that up and running to accommodate and meet Ontario Building Code requirements," said Bruno Nazzicone of Senator Homes, at a public meeting on Jan. 28.

It was really quite sad to see what had happened t

Independent assessments of costs to retrofit the building have shown it to be uneconomical and impractical, he said, adding that in some cases he's heard the work could cost upwards of $700,000.

But many residents of the area believe the true value of the site stems from its place in Whitby's roots and would like to see it preserved.

"We all bought in this neighbourhood being told by Senator that it was going to be a historical building and we all were (of) the understanding that it was going to stay that away," said Bevin Moolenschot, who moved to the area with his family about two years ago.

The modern Ontario Shores facility at 700 Gordon St. was constructed from 1993 to 1996 to replace the former Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, built between 1913 and 1916. There were originally more than 30 buildings on the site but most of them were torn down after being destroyed by vandals over the years.

Mayor Pat Perkins recalled visiting the site during the 2003 to 2006 term of council to assess the structural integrity of the buildings.

"We went into one of the buildings down there that had been a recreational hall with beautiful wooden floors and (vandals had) put a bonfire on the inside of the building and burned out the floors," she said.

"It was really quite sad to see what had happened to a lot of the buildings there, and we were hoping that we could preserve something of the history of that old facility."

The Doctors' Residence was in the best physical condition, compared to all the other buildings, and council made a decision at the time to restore the site.

During Monday's meeting, Mayor Perkins raised a motion that was supported by council to refer the report back to staff and hold a public meeting to involve residents in the process of finding a potential use for the building.

"Even if it's just the facade that's kept, which in some cases is all you can do, if we can keep it and do something rich and good for the community with it, I think that it would be beneficial," the mayor said.